Full stop is short story in Open road. It was written by Alecia McKenzie. The story is told by letters.

Short story telling Carmen and her grandmother. Carmen living in New York with her husband. Carmen woks a doctor in local hospital.
Cramen’s grandmother living in Scotland. Grandmother never use commas and full stop in letters. Grandmother cites every letter about God because she is Christian.

Carmen and her brother Richie are crown up with them grandmother. Carmen and her brother parents were not able to care of them. That’s why Carmen and her grandmother are really close to each other. They write each other quite often.

Carmen send money to her grandmother. Grandmother is writing Carmen that thieves have broken houses in there. That’s why Carmen wants that grandmother put burglar bars the house windows. Grandmother don’t like that idea.

Grandmother wants that Carmen write her mother in England. Carmen doesn’t want to do that but soon she agrees to do that.
She write her mother and get hear that her mother has a cyst in her eye. Her mother also told that she wants to come in New York for the operation. Carmen doesn’t like that idea.

Soon Carmen’s mother arrives to Carmen’s house. Carmen’s mother told her that she and her husband gave Carmen and Richie to their grandmother to short period of time to stay. Because they went to work in England. But the grandmother refused to give them back to their parents.

Grandmother told Carmen that her mother and dad didn’t go England to work. They doesn’t ready to raise Carmen and her brother. That’s why they live with her grandmother.
Carmen believed her grandmother.

I like this short story. But grandmother’s letters is hard to read.
Because commas and full stop missing. Still I like the story.

The last spin is short story written by Evan Hunter, it tells a story of Danny and Tigo who are part of two rival gangs, or ”clubs” as they call them. In the beginning Danny see’s Tigo as his enemy, but as the story goes along they share their thoughts and start to be come friends.

It is kind of ironic thing that two people who are supposed to hate each other just because of the neighbourhoods they live in decide to call it a rest but since they wanted to start a friendship from a clean table Danny had to do one more round of Russian roulette, wich was at the same time beginning and ending of a friendship.

The language of the story is quite easy to read and understand with only exeption on the gun spesifications.

When Danny gathers up his dignity and asks Tigo to join him to the lake on sunday it shows how he breaks the rules and boundaries of a ”club” member.  Like he says that hes part of the club just because of the place he lives in and he doesnt even like the other people in his club.

The last question for the story in our book is ”Why do you think the two characters joined their gangs.” I find the sentence a bit misleading since they did not join the gangs together even though they would propably have wanted to if the story would have not ended. They would propably have left their gangs in the end but since misfortunate ending of Danny they could not make the difference in ganglife.

The story was good even though it felt a bit short and maybe at parts it was repetitive. The tense moments when Danny and Tigo were about to pull the trigger were well described. In conclusion the story was good And worth reading.

A Shocking Accident is a shorty story in Open road. It was written by Graham Greene.
It tells about Jerome and his father’s death.
Jerome was called into his housemaster’s room on a Tuesday morning. Housemaster, Mr Wordsworth told him to sit. He told Jerome that his aunt had called. He had some bad news to tell. Mr Wordsworth said that Jerome’s father had been in a serious accident in Naples. It was a street accident, and his father had died in it.

Jerome thought, first, that his father was shot, but Wordsworth finally told what had happened. ”Your father was in a poorer quarters of the city of Naples. There, the pigs are kept on the balcony. Your father was walking down the street when in a block of flats fell from the fifth floor pig on top of him. ”

Jerome appreciated and adored his father. His father was a writer. Jerome thinks that his father’s death was a comic. When he told about the school’s friends, he realized how it affects others. His father death after, him began to treat unreasonable, such as pigs.

Jerome loved her father. He has in possession of the album, which was a picture-postcards, and it eased her pain when her aunt began chatting with strangers on his father’s death.
His aunt would start, ”it was a tragic accident.” And people feels for compassion.
Jerome realized suddenly that rambling speech can be real. Him all his father’s death was terrible. He did not understand how it could permit such a civilized country. Her aunt had replied that ”I expect that Italy can be considered civilized.
Abroad happening all sorts of things, and my brother was hard to travel. He always filtered the water, because it was cheaper than buying mineral water. He was a careful man, but who could expect that when he is on his way to the Hydrographic Museum, he would die on the way? No one.”

Jerome has practised to tell his father’s death, to a short extent. In his view, there were two ways.

”Someone once told me, that in Naples always feels at home when you go to the rivers in Naples and New York in the same way. Where was I? In Naples, of course! Naples is poor. No washing or bed linens.
Livestock, pigs and chickens kept on balconies. Animals were not allowed to exercise and they fattens faster. I have no idea how heavy pig can be, but in Naples, the buildings are in need of repair. Balcony on the fifth floor gave out and pig bounced off the third-floor balcony on the street. My father was on his way Hydrographic Museum and the pig fell on top of him. The height and angle of broke his neck.”

The other method Jerome rehearsed had the virtue of brevity:
”My father was killed by a pig.”
”Really? In India?”
”No, in Italy.”
”How interesting. I never realized there was pig-sticking in Italy. Was your father keen on polo?”

In course of time, Jerome was become the accountant and he got engaged with Sally, who was twenty-five years old and his father was a doctor.

Jerome was concerned. He was fond of picture-postcards. He felt a longing to protect their memories. They were going to get married, and Sally, of course, wanted to know everything that was Jerome. Jerome was forced to tell Sally, his father’s death, even though he was afraid to laugh. But Sally was not laugh, but showed his regret.

Short story was very interesting and it is focused on the content of Jerome’s father in an accident. The content of the short story was very well written, and it was used for the imagination. I think the end is slightly open, but it is nice. I liked the story too, and I think it fits all.

Alecia McKenzie’s short story Full Stop is a very impressive story about a cold relationship between mother and daughter. The short story consists of different letters which have been written by Grandma Scottie and her grandchild Carmen. The plot of the story is very simple, they write each others and tell about how their life’s going. In the story grandchild Carmen sends regularly letters and also money to her Grandma who uses the money for specific purposes. Carmen considers her Grandma as her biological mother because her own mother left her and her brother with their Grandma. The real mother is described as ”a snake in the grass” in the story so it tells a lot of their relationship.

Grandma’s character is a very religious person, which you can notice on the first Grandma’s letter. She always writes ”God bless” in the end of the letter. Grandma asks money that she doesn’t really need. In my opinion a good christian should live simply life and be satisfied with it. But however she is a good mother to Carmen because she takes care of her.

In the short story is mentioned Normy who is Carmen’s husband. Normy is called for ”hubby” by Grandma. Grandma and Carmen often writes about how Normy’s doing. For example Grandma often says: ”say hello to your hubby”. They also talks about some Richard who is Carmen’s brother. He doesn’t keep in touch with Grandma at all. He seems so busy and reluctant to write to his foster mother, Grandma Scottie. In the end of the story Richard finally writes to her how he’s doing but quite briefly I think.

Carmen has seen her biological mother only at once and her relationship with her seems to be quite complicated. Her mother wants to know her own daughter better but Carmen declines to contact with her. In the story Carmen’s mother tells the reason why she has left her children with Grandma. The reason of the event is a very different version from grandma’s. I believe that Grandma’s version is the right one cause the entire story has written in Grandma’s opinion so that version seems to be more reliable.

The story was quite interesting and easy to understand even if it had no punctuation in Grandma’s letters.